Even if there is video of him taking down the sign, I am not prepared (yet) to believe that he stole it. His statement was such an absurd collection of lies that I’d be more inclined to believe somebody told him he could take the sign in order to set him up.
Isn’t it evident that the statement was written by a non-native speaker? You know darn well there’s a gun or something pointed at this kid out of camera range. He will say Obama personally called and requested he steal the sign because he’s scared out of his own skin.
Vice actually did a special on North Korean labor camps. It is quite fascinating to watch!
Uh – you do all recall that the UN Security Council just passed huge sanctions against NK, right, because of their nuclear activities? They have detained this young man because they know they can use him as a hostage to negotiate a reduction of those sanctions. It’s pretty obvious to me.
Obviously nothing that comes out of his mouth can be believed as long as he’s in their custody. NK has detained our people before, and they usually get some sort of semi-apology from us that they use as propaganda for their people to show how they can stick it to their imperialist enemy, the US of A.
When are you and he going to learn that is a possible consequence for doing dumb thing over there?
People can be killed for less.
He is not going to be killed.
Who knows if any of this is true, but…IF he did it, he may have been drunk. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/otto-was-dragged-away-from-airport-gate-by-north-korean-armed-officials-says-irish-national-a6827271.html
That article has this and I think there are truths to this if you have ever known about communist regimes:
You have completely missed the point, fire123. He may not have done ANYTHING wrong. These are evil people. They don’t play by the playbook of human decency.
Isn’t the syntax the freaking clue here?
"I never, never should have allowed myself to be lured by the United States administration to commit a crime in this country, I wish that the United States administration never manipulate people like myself in the future to commit crimes against foreign countries. "
Leaving aside the ludicrousness that the U.S. Administration contacted this kid and requested he steal a poster, we don’t say “I wish that X never manipulate Y.” We might say “I wish that X had never manipulated Y” to refer to something in the past, but the back half of the sentence is about the future. That’s so obviously a non-native phrasing and so obviously a scripted statement.
This is a sad story. There was a piece on the news showing the kid apologizing in court. He looks very scared. He is young and dumb and even if he took a
poster off a wall–15 years in a work camp is way too harsh. It is like a death sentence. I hope the kid can be saved.
I still can’t get over the travel agency’s slogan. And that it attracts people.
Terribly foolish to go to North Korea at all but let’s hope he is freed soon.
- He did do something wrong. Did you see the video?
- These are evil people. Stay away from them. Go there at your own risk.
If there is a stray dog running wild on the street and you go and mess with him and you get bitten. Should you learn something or do you cry … poor me, bad bad dog.
LOL, that’s so hokey…
Link to this video of him stealing the poster, please.
I saw the video somewhere online today, but now can’t remember where the link was. Am looking for it…
This isn’t where I saw it before, but here is a link:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=11607657
It is just a few seconds of video, no telling if it is really him (his parents could probably tell).
The video means absolutely nothing. It might not be him, he might have been doing something besides stealing, blah de blah. Regardless – you just don’t mess with North Korea. They’re not very nice. And they don[t particularly care for the United States.
The kid is a bargaining chip and he will be used by the North Korean government to get something they want.